


White Lies

by Felceris



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fic Exchange, Holiday Fic Exchange, aosxfe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2014-01-01
Packaged: 2018-01-07 00:20:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1113249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felceris/pseuds/Felceris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Part of the AOS Christmas Fic Exchange.<br/>Prompt: Pretend relationship and Jemma's parents like him better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	White Lies

**Author's Note:**

> ~For: bowtiesare—-cool / Sonika  
> ~Three Prompts:  
> 1.Jemma’s parents like him better  
> 2.Pretending to be a couple (I’m thinking the whole them going undercover in a suburbia where they have to pretend to be a married couple and do the whole white picket fence thing)  
> 3.Daughter (Either them having a daughter together or one of them having a child that’s not the others)
> 
> I kind of merged the first two prompts and just ran with it. I'm expecting this to be in three parts. Part two is coming soon. I really hope you like it. Parts 2 and 3 will be coming soon.

_Knock. Knock._ “Simmons.”  _Knock. Knock._ “I know you’re in there.”

 Jemma did not respond to the steady knocking at her door. In fact, she barely lifted her head. She preferred instead to stay buried beneath her pillows, trying desperately not to die of embarrassment.  What had she been thinking? How could she have been so bloody foolish?

 It had started with what Jemma had thought was an innocent call from her parents. She had reassured them that her request for leave had been approved and she would definitely be in attendance at her parents’ 30th anniversary celebration. It had actually been very easy to get a few days off from her work. They weren’t currently on a mission, and she’d made excellent progress on all of her long-term projects.

 The trouble had arisen when her mum had let it slip that a friend of a friend’s nephew was “positively thrilled” at the prospect of meeting Jemma at her parents’ party. Jemma loathed meeting the men her mother frequently arraigned for her to meet. Each one was the same as the last and seemed to fill a very specific mold. Jemma had no idea what had possessed her mother to believe she would be interested in dating, much less  _marrying_ , the orthodontist, the podiatrist, or the insurance salesman. It’s not that she had a certain type, but if she did, it most certainly was not them.

 Jemma had tried to tell her mother that she wasn’t interested in dating anybody at the moment. Her work kept her far too busy for romance. “But Jeremy is an world class orthopedic surgeon, Jemma!” Her mom had practically wailed into the phone. She’d gone on and on about the sort of dedication, intelligence, and drive it had taken this  _Jeremy_  to achieve his level of success. How he was a perfect match for Jemma in every way. How “Jemma and Jeremy” sounded so perfect and “wouldn’t that look lovely on wedding invitations?”

 Before she’d even known her lips were parting, Jemma had blurted out “I’m engaged!” and instantly wished to recall her words. Her declaration was met with a stunned silence from her dad and what sounded like a pterodactyl screech from her mum. The lie was meant to halt her mother’s matchmaking and get her out of meeting Mr. Orthopedic Surgeon. Instead, it had spiraled out of control and resulted in her mum’s insistence on meeting the man who had finally won her daughter’s heart. She simply couldn’t find a way out of the predicament she’d created.

So Jemma had done the only thing she could think of. She’d gathered all the courage she could muster and asked Ward to pretend to be her fiancé for the weekend. The utterly dumbfounded expression that flashed across his face had been enough to send Jemma fleeing in mortification.

  _Knock. Knock._ “Simmons.”  _Knock._  “Open,”  _Knock._ “The,”  _Knock._  “Door.” 

 Jemma snuggled in deeper into her pillows and tried to will him away.  Wasn’t it bad enough to have so completely humiliated herself that he had to follow her to her room and prolong the disaster? The knocking ceased, and for a single glorious moment she imagined she’d been spared further embarrassment.

 Today was most certainly not her day, however.  She heard the door to her room slide open.  _Didn’t I lock that?_  She wondered.

 “Simmons.” He said her name in such a way that goose pimples pricked along Jemma’s arms.  Jemma hoped desperately that he would go away.

 “No.”

  _Shit_. She’d said that out loud. Jemma sighed heavily and wiggled her way out from under her pile of pillows. She pulled herself off her bed to face Ward with whatever shred of dignity she had left.

Grant leaned against the closed door, his arms crossed in a careful attempt at casual boredom. In reality, he was still stunned by Simmons’s strange request. He had no idea what he’d expected when she’d cornered him in the training room, but it wasn’t an odd appeal to pretend to an engagement for the weekend _._

And while Grant usually prided himself on his ability to think fast, he’d been too surprised to respond immediately. The words had tumbled out of her mouth and shocked him to his core.  He hadn’t even fully processed her words when she’d flushed a deep red and dashed away. After a brief moment, he followed. He caught up with her in time to have the door slammed in his face.

He’d knocked for a few minutes but when it became clear that Simmons had no intention of opening the door, he’d picked the lock.

 She said nothing but lifted her chin in what felt liked a challenge.  Jemma didn’t understand him.  _Why won’t he leave?_  “Why must he insist on prolonging this wretched situation?” She prattled quietly, her voice laced with an odd mixture of frustration and worry. 

Grant grinned to himself when he realized that Jemma didn’t intend to rant verbally instead of in her own thoughts. And he would never admit it aloud, but he found her embarrassment rather cute. Still, she very easily riled herself into a tizzy, and didn’t want that to happen now. 

If asked, he’d admit that he considered Simmons a friend. Probably one of his best friends. Still, he’d never been the sort of person who liked having a lot of friends, much less getting overly involved in their personal lives. Yet he felt compelled to go along with her ridiculous scheme, and he couldn’t really figure out why.

“Simmons.” His firm voice startled Jemma out of her nonsensical rambling. “You’re like a derailed train, you know that?”

“Pardon?” She asked.

Ward shrugged at her but didn’t elaborate, just looked at her in a way that suggested she should understand his comment perfectly.  “So, what’s the situation? Explain it to me.”

When Jemma just stared at him blankly, Grant sighed. He couldn’t believe how easily she seemed to lose her focus. For a damned genius she certainly couldn’t seem to hold on to her thoughts for very long.

“This whole charade, your parents’ party… What exactly do you need me to do?”

Jemma couldn’t believe that he seemed even mildly interested in helping her out of her predicament. 

“Well,” she started nervously, “there’s this orthopedic surgeon, you see…”

##

**_The next day_ **

Jemma fidgeted nervously in her seat. She could practically feel Ward staring at her expectantly, but she avoided his gaze. She hardly believed that he’d actually agreed to go along with her little ruse and was still mortified by the whole situation.

Ward hadn’t been all that surprised to hear about Jeremy The Orthopedic Surgeon, since Jemma had long ago explained her mother’s constant meddling and the never-ending parade of friends’ sons and acquaintances’ nephews. He had been surprised, however, to learn that she’d lied to her mother, something they both knew Jemma hated doing. He was even more surprised to find out that the lie was of already having a fiancé and that she’d dropped his name in a fit of panic. He’d quickly decided to help Jemma out of her little bind, though, much to her relief.

Now they were on a plane headed to what could quite possibly be the most horrid weekend of her life, and probably his, too. An awkward silence had fallen between them the moment they’d found their seats, and Jemma wasn’t sure how to break it.

“We should probably come up with some sort of cover story or something.” Grant said. He’d been waiting for her to say something, figured she’d want to take point on this one, but she seemed pretty reluctant to even look at him much less speak to him.

“Hm?” She mumbled distractedly, as she looked out her tiny little window.

“Simmons,” He said, his voice harsher than he’d intended.

Jemma sighed at her name. Ward had a knack for making her name sound like an admonition.  She turned in her seat to face him and breathed in deeply to steady her already frayed nerves.

“I’m sorry. I know I’m being a bore. And after you’ve gone out of your way to assists me in this unfortunate scenario. It’s just, well, I can’t believe I’ve gotten myself into this mess in the first place. I don’t know what I was thinking to—“

Grant held up a hand to halt her rambling. They didn’t have a lot of time, and he’d rather they not make fools of themselves at her parents’ party. 

“I swear, Simmons, how do you get anything done when you talk so much? Shit no, not what I meant.”  _Damn, good job Grant. Open mouth insert foot._

“I don’t know whether I should be offended or not.” Jemma stared at him, her eyes narrowed speculatively but she had a smile on her lips.

“Sorry, Simmons, you know I didn’t mean it that way,” He smiled at her and hoped that it would be that last time he put his foot in his mouth this weekend. “Just, slow down a little, okay? We don’t have a lot of time, but we can do this.”

Jemma smiled back at him, comforted by his reassurance.

“No apologies needed, Ward. I do know that I can, on occasion, temporarily depart from the main topic at hand. I shall do my best to remain on task.” She leaned forward to pull her notepad and a pen from her bag. “Now then, where shall we begin?”

Grant laughed. He couldn’t help himself. She just looked so pretty sitting there with her notepad out, ready to take notes on their fake relationship. She was nothing, if not prepared, after all.

“I think we should start with first names. I know we’re used to using our last names in the field, but I’m guessing your parents expect us to use our first names, right?”

“Well, yes, that’s true. I suppose we’ll have to use our given names if we’re to pull this off convincingly…” Her voice trailed off, and she said northing more.

“Grant,” he reminded her, voice low and teasing. 

“Yes, yes, I  _know_  your name.” She wasn’t sure why she was hesitant to use his given name, but there was something holding her back.

“I know, it’s weird for me, too. You’ve always been Simmons to me, but we have to seem at least somewhat comfortable using each other’s first names.”

 Jemma looked at him, just really looked at him. She took in his neatly parted hair and wide brown eyes, the strong and firm jaw without even a hint of stubble, and the comforting grin curving the corner of his lips. His was a face that she’d memorized from the first moment they met. He’d been a comforting presence over much of the last year.

Their relationship had quickly developed from strictly teammates into a fairly close friendship, but there was still a certain sort of reserve between them. She figured that it was pretty natural occurrence to grow close after the whole jumping out of a plane without a parachute to save her life thing, but she didn’t have the same brotherly relationship with Ward that she shared with Leo. 

And thought they’d shared many conversations, both light hearted and deeply personal, he was always just Ward. He’d been Ward just as long as she’d been Simmons. The idea of using their given names felt strange to her. He’d never known  _Jemma_. It was always just Simmons. She’d never known him as Grant. It felt as awkward as if Fitz suddenly wanted to be called George or Patrick or some other random name.

“Jemma.” 

Her name startled her out of her musings. It sounded so peculiar coming from his mouth, in a way that she could not place. She looked at him in surprise and watched as his lips curled around her name once more.

“Jemma.”

 There was a sudden fluttering in her chest that she would analyze at a later time. She filed away the delicious shiver at the nape of her neck and the goose pimples that once again covered her arms. How strange that her name, a name that she’d always considered rather unremarkable, could sound so positively exquisite coming from his mouth.

“Jemma.” Okay, that time is sounded rather gruff, but she still quite liked it. “Simmons, dammit, Earth to Simmons?” He snapped his fingers in front of her nose to gain her attention.

 Grant stared at Jemma in exasperation. Considering the way things were shaping up, and Jemma’s complete lack of focus, this weekend was bound to be a disaster. 


End file.
